Biography

Early life

Lubbers
was born in Rotterdam.He studied economics at Erasmus
University Rotterdam and was a student of the first Nobel Prize Laureate in economics Jan Tinbergen. As suggested by the
title of his 1962 thesis - "The influence of differing productivity
trends in various countries on the current account of the balance
of payments" - his main interest was in monetary affairs. He
originally planned an academic career, but was compelled by family
circumstances to join the management of Lubbers' Construction
Workshops and Machinery Fabricators Hollandia B.V.Lubbers is a
member of the Bilderberg
Group.

Politics

From 11 May 1973 to 19 December 1977 he was Minister of Economic
Affairs in the Den Uyl-government and a
member of the Catholic People's
Party (KVP). He was an effective, if sometimes somewhat
bad-tempered minister. He chose to return to Parliament on the
formation of the Van Agt-government in 1977, becoming Senior Deputy
Parliamentary Leader of the CDA, the alliance between
the KVP and the other two main denominational parties. His career got an
unexpected boost when the leader of the parliamentary faction of
the CDA, Willem Aantjes, had to
resign in 1978 on accusations that he served in the Germanic-SS during the Second World
War. Lubbers took over the position of Aantjes and
suddenly found himself in a powerful political position.

In 1982 after the general election won by Prime Minister Dries van Agt, a similar thing happened when
Van Agt suddenly announced he would not be available for a third
term. Lubbers took over the post, a position he
held three successive governments through to 1994, making him the
longest serving prime minister in the history of the Netherlands.

A
massive demonstration in The Hague (1983) against the planned installation in the
Netherlands of nuclear-armed US cruise
missiles (which was cancelled after all due to arms reduction
talks between the US and the Soviet Union)

After
leaving office, was put forward as a candidate for the head of
NATO, but the US vetoed his appointment.

Ecological activities

In the follow-up of the Earth Summit in 1992, Lubbers engaged with
the Earth Charter
Initiative in cooperation with Michael Gorbachov and Maurice
Strong. The Earth Charter document was
launched in the Peace Palace in The Hague in June 2000. Lubbers is
an active member of the international Earth Charter Commission and
reaches out, especially to youth in the Netherland, with the
message of the Earth Charter for a sustainable and peaceful
world.

Academic

From 1995
to 2000, he taught Globalization Studies at Tilburg
University in the Netherlands and at the John F. Kennedy
School of Government at Harvard University in the United States.He was also
vice-chairman of the Independent World Commission on the Oceans and
chair of Globus, the Institute for Globalization and Development
based in Tilburg.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees

At the end of the year 2000, Lubbers was appointed by the
Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. Kofi Annan, to succeed
Mrs. Sadako Ogata as UN High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Lubbers was appointed 1 January 2001 to head an organization which
was concerned with an estimated 21 million refugees and internally
displaced in over 120 countries world wide. He led a UN agency that
comprised over 5,000 employees who work across the globe. During
his tenure, the number of refugees worldwide decreased by almost
22% from 21.8 million in 2001 to close to 17.1 million at the
beginning of 2004.

Lubbers also favoured a generous refugee policy for the Netherlands
and he was critical of the Foreign Citizens Law (Vreemdelingenwet).
Part of his achievement is that since he took on his duties as High
Commissioner, the persistent criticism of UNHCR dating from before
that time, subsided. He also managed to stabilise UNHCR’s financial
situation and to greatly increase the financial means for the
sheltering of refugees.

He annually donated some $300,000 to the refugee agency since he
assumed his post in 2001, thereby covering his own $167,000 annual
salary and travel expenses.

Sexual harassment complaint

In May 2004, Lubbers was accused by Cynthia Brzak, an American
UNHCR employee, of sexual harassment following a meeting in his
office that was attended by two other UNHCR staff members. The
complaint was reported in the media, prompting Lubbers to inform
UNHCR staff about the accusation. On this occasion, he denied any
wrongdoing and rejected the allegation against him. On 2 June 2004,
the United
Nations Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) which was
tasked with investigating the accusation, sent its report to UN
Secretary General Kofi Annan. In its
public annual report to the UN secretary general (presented to the
UN General Assembly), the OIOS
reported concerning the case that it had “submitted a report to the
Secretary-General supporting the allegations and recommended that
appropriate actions be taken accordingly.”

Lubbers responded to the OIOS report in a letter (a)setting out to
deny acts of sexual harassment or abuse took place; (b) to
establish that such evidence of the alleged misconduct as is said
to exist is insufficient and flawed; and (c) to conclude that the
report itself would appear to be based on an irregular statutory
basis and also flawed by errors of law and reasoning."

Lubbers asked Max van der Stoel,
former Dutch high commissioner for minorities, to comment on the
confidential report. He concluded that: "the OIOS report is
deficient in objectivity and impartiality." He added “that the only
two other persons in the room did not provide evidence confirmíng
the version given by the complainant.” Furthermore he accused UN
officials of leaking information to the press and recommended that
an investigation of the leaks be undertaken.

The Secretary-General reviewed the report and the responses of the
High Commissioner and the senior manager to the report, and decided
that the complaint could not be substantiated by the evidence and
therefore closed the matter." He is also reported to have consulted
with Stephen Schwebel, an American judge and former President of
the International Court of Justice. The Secretary-General failed to
order an investigation of the deliberate leaking by OIOS itself to
the media as recommended by Max van der Stoel.

Resignation

In February 2005, the case was in the news again when the British
daily the Independent obtained a
copy of the OIOS report and published its contents. Inter alia, the
report stated that:

the allegation against Lubbers is substantiated in that
Lubbers did engage in unwanted physical contact with the
complainant, a subordinate female staff member.

New allegations that came to OIOS’ attention during the
investigation, were also examined and indicate a pattern of sexual
harassment by Lubbers, OIOS is also of the view that Lubbers abused
his authority as High Commissioner by his intense, pervasive and
intimidating attempts to influence the outcome of this
Investigation.

Lubbers met with the Secretary-General on 18 February 2005, and
resigned as High Commissioner on Sunday, 20 February 2005, stating
to the press: "For more than four years I gave all my energy to
UNHCR. To be frank, despite all my loyalty, insult has now been
added to injury and therefore I resign as high commissioner." The
UN secretary general's office issued a statement the same day which
stated, that the High Commissioner's resignation was in the best
interests of theUNHCR. In his letter of resignation, Lubbers stated
that his resignation constituted no expression of guilt, but that
he had become the victim of smearing, adding that he had resigned
“in the interest of the organisation”. In October 2005 Kofi Annan
reiterated that he had come to the conclusion that "the evidence
did not support the accusation" but that because of ongoing
media-pressure Mr. Lubber's resignation was in the best interests
of the UNHCR.In a letter to UNHCR staff, Kofi Annan wrote, “My
decision to accept his resignation should not be interpreted as a
finding of guilt”.

During a farewell meeting for Lubbers as High Commissioner for
Refugees he received from Acting High Commissioner Wendy Chamberlin
the first annual UNHCR Achievement Award for exceptional services
to UNHCR and for the world’s refugees.

Netherlands Prime Minister Balkenende in a formal statement called
the departure of Lubbers “bitter” since the complaint against him
had been dismissed as unsustainable.